Over the past four decades, many attempts have been made to develop small (centimeter-scale) autonomous flying machines (micro-aerial vehicles “MAV” or unmanned aerial vehicles “UAV”) for applications ranging from reconnaissance in the battlefield to environmental monitoring. Significant advances in microfabrication technology have made it possible to realize mm-scale low-power microsystems capable of carrying out a wide array of sensing and actuation tasks. These attempts to create mechanical MAVs have ultimately been unsuccessful (Ellington C P, 1999. The novel aerodynamics of insect flight: applications to micro-air vehicles. The Journal of Experimental Biology. 202:3439-348), however, because the power sources needed for powering flight have not been sufficiently miniaturized, even though micro-scale actuators such as MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems), have existed for decades.
Insects can provide models for robotics as “biobots” (Crary, S. B., Moore, T. E., Conklin, T. A., Sukardi, F., and Kotiditschek, D. E. 1996. Insect Biorobotics: Electro-neural control of cockroach walking, Abstr. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, Workshop WT3, Bio-Mechanics, pp. 42-54; Louden, C. 1995. Insect morphology above the molecular level: biomechanics. Ann. entomol. Soc. Am., 88: 1-4), in which an intact (or nearly intact) biological system is incorporated into the design of a microdevice such as a MEMS device (Cary 1996 supra; Louden 1995 supra). Insects are autonomous flying machines and have aerodynamic performance superior to that of existing unmanned mechanical flying machines. Insects also exist in diverse shapes and sizes.
One important challenge that has not been solved, however, has been the permanent attachment of devices to adult insects. Several research groups have glued telemetric and electronic devices onto adult insects to track the insects' movements and migratory paths (Riley J R. 2005. The flight paths of honeybees recruited by waggle dance. Nature 435(12 May 2005): 205-207; Riley J R, Valeur P, Smith A D, Reynolds D R, Poppy G M. 1998. Harmonic radar as a means of tracking the pheromone finding and pheromone—following flight in male moths. Journal of Insect Behavior 11(2): 287-296), and have attached miniature “backpacks” for environmental monitoring, wireless communication, or biobotic manipulation of behavior (Crary 1996 supra; Mohseni P, Nagarajan K. 2001. An ultralight biotelemetry backpack for recording EMG signals in Moths. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 48(6): 734-737; Kuwana Y., Ando N., Kanzaki R., and Shimoyama I. 1999. A radio telemetry system for muscle potential recordings from freely flying insects. Proceedings of IEEEBEMS/EMBS conf., Atlanta, Ga., October 1999: 846; Kutsch W, Schwarz G, Fischer H, and Kautz H. 1993. Wireless transmission of muscle potentials during free flight of locust. The Journal of Experimental Biology 185: 367-373).
Attachment of devices to insects as adults, however, leads to reduced flying agility, presumably because the insect perceives the load as a foreign weight (Table 1).
TABLE 1List of advantages and disadvantages of usingrobotic MAV and insects as payload carriers.AdvantageDisadvantageMAV manual robotics1. Manipulation of flight is1. Expensive to designpossible.and manufacture2. Loss of MAV not due toversatile models.external natural stimuli2. Useful load(pheromone, ultrasound)disappears withdecrease in MAV size.Insect asSuperficial1. Versatile MAV models.1. Lack of control ofpayloadAttachment2. Can carry a load of half itsflight direction.carriersmuscle weight2. Unreliable andprone to dislodge.3. Light weight powersource not available.Surgical1. Permanent structure for1. Lack of control ofAttachmentattachment of payload.flight direction.2. Versatile MAV models.2. Light weight power3. Can carry a load of half itssource not availablemuscle weight.4. Acclimatization to the extraload is easier when load isattached at a pre-adult stage.
Telemetric devices glued onto insects are temporary attachments, and have been reported to fall off when the insect is in a confined space or foraging in vegetation. Handling a mobile and active adult insect to attach a payload is also difficult for mass production. Furthermore, with typical adult insect life spans of 2-3 weeks, delivery to the site of deployment at the correct time is challenging.
There is therefore a need in the art for methods for permanently attaching devices to adult insects. There is also a need in the art for unmanned, micro-aerial vehicles with permanently attached telemetric or electronic devices.
Citation or identification of any reference in Section 2, or in any other section of this application, shall not be considered an admission that such reference is available as prior art to the present invention.